QUOTE(bluie @ Sep 22 2006, 01:49 AM)
So suddenly region-locked games is a good thing for the consumer? Yeah right..
To me everyone claiming with absolute ceirtainity that more than 9 gigs per game is completely unneeded sounds suspiciosly alike people claiming that "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!"...
Oh well. Go figure.
And to anyone wanting either MS or Sony to fail: Stupid!
Nothing better for the consumer than a very intensive - but non lethal - console war!
Regardless of what he's calming the Xbox 360 isn't region locked... the console knows what region it belongs to (for reasons of power and output frequency compatibility) but it's left up to developers to lock their game to that region information or not... it's the same exact methods that Sony is using with the PS3. The Wii on the other hand is required to be locked for Nintendo certification (contrary to early reports, they were later squashed by Nintendo HQ).
No matter if there is region locking or not there's no reason all the different region info needs to reside on the same disc. You can put localized content on a disc without region locking, if you make a disc for Japan and have no intention of selling it in the US you aren't going to put US localization data on it anyway, region locking or not.
I also don't think anyone is saying that "more than 9 gigs per game is completely unneeded" or that we are claiming it with "absolute certainty". I think no one can no for sure. But estimates point that 9 gigs is sufficient for most titles this generation. Let me say that again. It's been
estimated (best guesses) that 9GB is sufficient for
most (a high percentage but not all) titles
this generation (the next 5 years).
Besides the whole question is not whether the extra space is needed AT ALL the debate is if the extra space is so desperately needed that it would have been beneficial to gamers if MS delayed their consoles launch a whole year, added $200 to the price of the console, and added another $5 to $10 (on top of the existing $10) to the price of games for the space benefit of a blue laser disc.
Similarly you have to question if the Blu-Ray's added space is similarly beneficial to Sony's PS3... without blu-Ray you could have been playing the PS3 this time last year, you could have bought it for $300 or $400 (possibly even cheaper) and game prices would be $5 to $10 cheaper.
Do I think there will be games this generation that need more then 9GB of space? YES I DO... Do I think that number of games will be so large that the added costs across the board and years wait would be worth not having to swap discs on a few select titles... NO I DO NOT.